Snowden at centre of US and Russian tensions

Quito: Ecuador has denied it gave a travel document to fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden that allowed him to travel from Hong Kong to Russia.

"This is not true. There is no passport, no document that was delivered by any Ecuadoran consulate," senior foreign ministry official Galo Galarza told reporters.

"He doesn't have a document supplied by Ecuador like a passport or a refugee card as has been mentioned," Mr Galarza added.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been assisting Mr Snowden, said on Monday that Quito had issued the former National Security Agency contractor a "refugee document of passage" after the United States revoked his passport.

Advertisement

Mr Snowden, who has applied for political asylum in Ecuador, spent a fourth day at a Moscow airport on Wednesday with his travel plans still a mystery after he failed to show up Monday for a flight to Cuba on which he was booked.

Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said earlier during a visit to Malaysia that it could take weeks to decide whether to grant asylum to Mr Snowden.

But he later backpedalled, writing on Twitter that reporters had misinterpreted him and that it could take "one day, one week or, like it happened for Assange, it could take two months."

Ecuador, led by leftist President Rafael Correa, has been sheltering Mr Assange at its embassy in London since August last year as he faces extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault.

In Kuala Lumpur, Mr Patino indicated Ecuador had not yet decided whether to open the doors for Snowden if he seeks asylum at one of the country's embassies.

"If he goes to an embassy then we will make the decision," he said.

Mr Snowden has been on the run since admitting that he was the source behind the leak of information about massive US surveillance programs to gather phone and Internet data.

Also on Wednesday, the US Justice Department said Hong Kong authorities asked the United States to clarify Edward Snowden's middle name before they would agree to detain the former US intelligence contractor accused of leaking secrets.

A department spokeswoman said that Hong Kong used the supposed confusion around Mr Snowden's middle name as a pretext for not acting on the US request for his arrest.